1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a communications network, and in particular to a packet network and to nodes for use in such a network.
2. Related Art
In some currently proposed architectures for optical networks carrying packet traffic, packets are assigned different priorities in order, for example, to support different quality of service (QoS) levels. Packets originating at a node may be assigned to one of a number of different transmit queues, depending on their relative priority. In some previously proposed “drop and insert” node architectures, when a packet arrives at a destination node, it is removed from the network, and the resulting vacancy may be immediately filled by an outgoing packet from a transmit queue. Such an arrangement is disclosed, for example, in the paper by J. R. Sauer et al “A Soliton Ring Network” Journal of Lightweight Technology, Vol. 11, No. 12, December 1993, Pages 2182-2190.